A Historical Perspective for NCUA’s 2021 Budget Discussion

If the NCUA board approves a reduction in NCUA’s budget for 2021, it will be the first time in 35 years the budget has been reduced, not increased. In fact, the Agency was able to cut its budget for three years in a row, 1982-1985. Here is how NCUA did it as documented in Agency records.

The Credit Union System 1984 and 2020: 10,229 Fewer Charters

To comprehend the unprecedented nature of NCUA’s prior management achievement, it is helpful to compare the scale of the Agency’s operations in 1985 versus today. At September 30, the end of fiscal 1984, NCUA with six regional offices examined annually 10,640 federal charters, and insured 4,722 state charters, a total of 15,362 active credit unions.

Thirty-six years later, September 30, 2020, NCUA oversees 3,213 federal charters and insures

1,920 state charters for a total of 5,133 or a reduction of 10,229 federally insured credit unions. There are three regional offices.

The following two NCUA press releases from 1984 provide budget details and the benefits the savings brought to federal credit unions enabling a 64% reduction in the FCU operating fee scale over these three years.

From an NCUA Press Release, July 25, 1984:

NCUA 1985 Budget Down 4.9%

The National Credit Union Administration board approved a fiscal year 1985 budget that is 4.9% below the Agency’s 1984 budget. This is the third consecutive year in which the budget has been cut. It is he largest reduction to date.

. . . the fiscal year 1985 budget , totaling $32 million, is down $1.7 million or 4.9% from the 1984 budget of $34.7 million

“We won’t forget that credit unions provide the primary source of funding the Agency,” said Board Chairman Edgar Callahan. “Deregulation and decentralization have enabled us to provide better and faster service to credit unions at less cost and to concentrate our efforts on our primary mission—safety and soundness. “

Despite the trimmed down budget, money for training and education has been increased because the Agency believes a better trained examiner force is essential in a deregulated environment. . . The bulk of the increase will go to a training session for new examiners and for the NCUA’s National Examiners’ Meeting in December. This week-long educational session will bring together federal and state credit union examiners. It is the first meeting of its kind. . .

From a September 15, 1984, NCUA press release announcing the reduction in its annual operating fee.

FCU Operating Fee Slashed 24%; Scale Cut 64% Over Three Years

The National Credit Union Administration Board today slashed by 24% the operating fee scale for federal credit unions in 1985, bringing to 64% the total fee scale cuts over the past three years.

The dramatic 24% cut will save federal credit unions more than $4.3 million in 1985 and has saved them more than $15 million since 1983, the first year in the NCUA’s history that the fee scale was cut. . . .

Previously the operating fee scale had risen by 9% in 1980, 8% in 1981, and 7.5% in 1982

“For the third straight year the efficient operations of the Agency have allowed us to put money back into the pockets of federal credit unions,” said NCUA Chairman Callahan. “This is an impressive track record, one that the agency and the entire credit union system can be proud of.. ..”

The NCUA board attributed the Agency’s success in keeping costs down to high productivity by NCUA staff, personnel reductions and a shifting of resources from the central office to the field where they are needed most.

For example, NCUA for the second year in a row has completed an annual examination of each federal credit union, an achievement not seen since the mid-1970’s. Although total agency employment has been reduced by 15%, the number of examiners has increased to an all-time high (369). Getting back to a once-a-year exam cycle exemplifies the Board’s desire to promote safety and soundness while leaving management decisions in the hands of credit unions. . .

The Problem We All Share Part III: Addressing the Problem

A Solution: Open Up Market Participation and Transparency

I believe more open competitive forces must be added to a Board’s decision to give up their charter. All merger intentions should be announced in a public notice so that any interested party is able to participate when a board decides to end its independence.

For example, why should Post Office in Madison or Sperry Employees in Long Island negotiate their members’ future in secrecy and then announce their decision without other area credit unions able to “bid” for these long-standing, local, well-capitalized ”franchises?”

Why not give members a real choice of a convenient and familiar credit union as well as one that is remote, digital only, and with no connections to the community?

Bringing more market forces could add better options for members. If two large billion-dollar credit unions want to merge locally, why shouldn’t a large credit union from outside the market be able to participate and preserve a real choice for members?

If the members are informed by an open process, they are more likely to support the board’s recommendation. Now they are forced into a combination they know nothing about and where the results are approved by only a very tiny minority of members returning the requested mail ballot.

Mergers that Enhance Safety and Soundness

Opening up the merger process would make the credit union system more transparent, responsive and relevant for members and their communities. Facts and plans would have to be laid out, not merely bland marketing assurances of “ a better future.”

Credit union safety and soundness would be enhanced because members can make an informed choice. Interested credit unions must take their time to present a relevant option. Token payouts of members’ equity to achieve a positive vote could be replaced by considered bids for the credit union’s real value, including good well.

As presented in Part I, PenFed’s five-year performance has not been enhanced by its merger-growth efforts. Its asset growth rate is half that of its peers; expenses are rising and there are no obvious economies of scale. Asset quality challenges have heightened. There is no evidence members see better value. Member relationships are declining. PenFed’s ROA and asset growth increasingly depends on acquiring other credit union’s net worth. Mergers are disguising its underperformance and slowing internal growth.

Even more pernicious is that PenFed’s mergers have eliminated 20 credit union boards of directors, CEOs and senior management teams. Twenty seeds of future innovation are gone. Multiple long-term relationships with local communities are broken. Members’ loyalty is discarded. None of these outcomes enhances the cooperative system’s financial diversity or soundness.

Transferring the financial equity from generations of members to a board and senior management with no connections to the community’s surplus further removes members from their cooperative creation.

Directors’ view of their responsibility changes in mergers. Instead of acting as stewards of a legacy they inherited, they become deal makers. They routinely ratify payoffs to other credit union’s directors and employees as just the “the art of the deal.” Values be damned.

In the end, the current secret negotiations corrupt both credit union buyers and sellers. And in so doing, the cooperative model.

The Problem We All Have

The current merger practice promotes the privatizing of members’ common wealth and the degrading of credit unions’ role in their communities. Because participation in voting is so minimal, members are left with the feeling they were not informed, or maybe even tricked. The experience is no different than when a bank is sold. Instead of being the alternative to for-profit capitalism, the industry is becoming that which it was supposed to replace.

There are two traditional approaches to system problems. The first is, let the “free” market work it all out. Give the forces of competition loose rein so the magic of the invisible hand can create the best outcome. In the end, all will be right. Winners take all.

The second is that government must step up to regulate abuses, enact better rules and enhance its supervision of the current practice of routine signoff.

But I recommend a third solution built on cooperative principles. Let the members decide. One person, one vote. Put their interests truly front and center.

There are multiple current merger practices that would give member owners the information to have a real choice about the future of their credit union. Working with the industry, regulators should design a truly “cooperative” process that enhances members’ involvement and in so doing, their commitment to the outcome.

The revitalized process would seek traditional financial and operational proposals combined with the important qualitative values credit unions promote: community connections, local focus, giving back to members, and demonstrated track records.

For many Americans, the lack of trust of those in authority is based on their perception that leaders place their interests above their own and the community’s broader shared values. PenFed is a prime example of an outside organization hollowing out local communities by cashing out its leaders.

The social trust on which the cooperative model exists is enhanced by a more visible and transparent process. The public support for the industry’s tax exemption is upheld. The movement will be guided by the shared set of norms and values that created it.

Going from Spectators to Engaged Co-op Citizens

With over 99% of credit unions in NCUA’s lowest risk CAMEL ratings, it is easy to lose sight of the interdependence and cooperation on which the cooperative movement is established. The common good slowly recedes to second place versus individual institutional success.

Market forces are not motivated by the common good or subject to moral limits. Credit unions were to be a counterexample to Mark Twain’s assessment of human motivation:

“Some men worship rank, some worship heroes, some worship power, some worship God and over these ideals they dispute and cannot unite–but they all worship money.”

Current merger excesses are destroying the moral capital created by movement’s founders. Instead of active citizens we become spectators or voyeurs hoping the abuses will go away or maintaining that this is not my problem.

A Renewed Movement

However, movements are not simply a one-time past occurrence, but rather something we can all participate in our own time.

Individual economic isolation and the power of large monopolies which gave rise to the progressive movement at the turn of the 20th century is as pervasive today as 100 years ago.

Some label credit unions as an industry. They are no longer disrupters of the status quo, but a mature segment of financial services with resources, opportunities and influence to play like the big boys. Movements are a moment of history, not the current reality they argue.

Both views can be true, but when movement is left out, credit unions become identified with the status quo and its problems, versus innovators of trusted value to members.

In its finest expression, cooperative design is an ongoing experiment to address the shortcomings of unfettered capitalism. It takes only a few leaders to stand up for change to convert perverse merger activity to a more productive outcome for members. Who will have the foresight and courage to push this to the top of the movement’s agenda?

The Problem We All Share Part II: Mergers’ Impact on the Cooperative System

Part I documents the flailing financial performance of PenFed’s merger growth strategy. It increasingly depends on acquisitions of sound, well-capitalized credit unions to prop up its below average financial performance.

Why should this be a concern of other credit unions? Or industry leaders? Or regulators? Aren’t mergers independent decisions by CEOs and boards claiming to do the right thing for their members? Why should others get involved in these “consenting combinations” of two distinct firms? And if there is something untoward going on, isn’t that the responsibility of the regulators to address, not other credit unions?

So far, PenFed has acquired 20 credit unions, the vast majority of whom were exemplary models of how credit unions can make a difference for their members and local communities. This value established over decades is ended by PenFed mergers and replaced by a distant, virtual model devoid of local connection and relationships.

PenFed’s actions are not only a sham strategy, they also debase and weaken the cooperative system.

Induced Consent

The process by which this is done is to pay CEO and senior staff severance bonuses and other salary and benefit increases, provide one-time staff bonuses as much as 10%, and often offer a special bonus dividend of several hundred dollars to members—all contingent upon member approval of the merger.

These incentives ensure the required member vote is a mere administrative formality. It presumes the decades of member trust and loyalty can be relied upon so they will follow the recommended action of the board and familiar management team. The member vote is largely by mail and the required in-person meeting is always on the final day of voting. That timing eliminates the opportunity for discussion of alternatives by members.

This managed process virtually guarantees approval. The percentage of members who vote in favor are always in single digits, but none the less sufficient to meet the only legal requirement– that a majority of those voting must approve the merger.

The process is both dishonest and corrupting. Member voting is charade. NCUA’s merger regulation gives legal cover to the payment of personal incentives that by any objective criteria bear all the earmarks of payoffs.

The Falsehoods of the Participants

This duplicity is confirmed by other documents. There are written statements by the leaders which contradict the merger action recommended. For example, Sperry Associates FCU’s CEO, two weeks before the mailing of the Member Notice, published an op-ed in Credit Union Times, extolling the superior strategy and performance of his ”right-sized” credit union versus larger or smaller ones in the pandemic:

A larger firm would have had to schedule meetings, create committees and navigate the rough waters of corporate politics, while a smaller firm would be working to enter the market. For us in the middle, we were the right size to react appropriately, all while using our internal talents to ensure that due diligence was conducted, and our solutions were beneficial to those we serve.

Is This Who We Are? Part I: The Proposed Merger of PenFed and Sperry Associates FCU

PenFed’s merger eliminated this credit union’s single office and ended virtually all of the local activities and relationships. The 16,303 members are now required to transact all contacts virtually.

Sperry’s Chair had been honored as volunteer of the Year by the New York Credit Union League in June 2020. He readily accepted knowing that in January he had agreed to the PenFed merger, an action not disclosed until July, after the award.

The Proposed Post Office Merger in Madison WI

Corruption is a form of dishonesty or criminal offense undertaken by a person or organization entrusted with a position of authority, to acquire illicit benefit or abuse power for one’s private gain. Wikipedia

PenFed’s acquisition of the $35 million Post Office CU follows the same game plan as the Sperry Associates FCU merger. The Wisconsin credit union, chartered in 1934, has a net worth ratio of 22%, seven employees, one branch and serves all of Dane County. It is sound, well-run and long serving. https://www.pocu.com/our-story

In the October 15, 2020 Special Meeting Notice, the required disclosures show that the CEO will receive a five-year employment contract with an increase in annual salary to $125,000; the Vice president has a comparable gain. “Select” employees will get a 10% retention bonus and all, a three-year employment offer. If either the CEO or Vice President terminates employment, they are eligible for one-time payments of up to $614,900.

Each eligible member will get a one-time $200 capital distribution “if the merger is approved and consummated.” This would be from the credit union’s 22% net worth of $7.6 million and is estimated at only 8% ($640,000) of this total. The remaining $7.0 million reserves transfers to PenFed as other operating income, that is free money.

The payments are in plain sight, all contingent on a merger. The member notice provides not a single rate, fee or factual service benefit from this action. In Sperry, the single office is being closed. In Post office the wording is vague: “PenFed intends to maintain the current POCU branch at. . .” This is not a commitment.

While the objective evidence of financial inducements is clear, how can one know this is not a considered, well intentioned decision to enhance members’ future? After all, the Post Office board of directors affirmed in their Notice that the merger is desirable for the following reasons:

  • Our board evaluated strategic possibilities to ensure that you our member, will continue to receive the full range of products and service you deserve.
  • We have been diligently seeking to find alternatives.
  • Only one option meets the full range of our objectives: growth of membership, expansion of product offerings, infusion of investment in IT cybersecurity, improved training and enhanced community service. . .PenFed is in the best interests of our members.

The director’s closing assurance of its considered judgment is given in these words:

“It is the recommendation of your Board that you vote “yes” to approve the merger. Please be assured that you are our valued member, and we have every confidence that you will be pleased by the level of commitment service, and value that you will receive from PenFed etc. . . “

If the financial facts were not sufficiently self-incriminating, the words above expose the dishonesty of the Board’s actions. There was no due diligence of PenFed that caused them to choose this from “ a range of options.” How do we know? Because these are exactly the same representations word for word sent to the members by Sperry Associates and Magnify, PenFed’s two most recent mergers. And the explicit “assurance” contained in the Notice, “we have every confidence that you will be pleased,” is exactly the same as in these two prior mergers.

PenFed assisted in the drafting of these notices. Since NCUA approved these wordings in the past, it will do so in the future, regardless of their veracity. NCUA endorsed Post Office Board’s assurance of due diligence even though there are no facts in the notice that would confirm this assertion. NCUA’s dereliction in ratifying these exact duplicates of alleged diligent representations of member interests, raises the question whether the agency has any clue about events.

As in PenFed’s other mergers, the leaders of Post Office have compromised their responsibility to their members. The member-owners will now be shorn of their credit union through their directors’ and CEO’s indifference to their legal and fiduciary duties.

NCUA Greenlights PenFed’s Conduct

The ONES office at NCUA oversees the examination of PenFed and approves all its mergers. It has seen the member notices that repeat word for word the misleading claims of due diligence and member assurance. It examines and tracks PenFed’s subpar financial performance.

NCUA has all the facts and fictions presented in Part I above. But the agency has no interest in members’ best interests, the phrase used to describe its merger oversight role.

NCUA issued its proposed merger rule in 2017 with following preamble:

In granting or withholding approval for a merger, the board is required to consider the following statutory factors: . . . the general character and fitness of the FICU’s management, the convenience and needs of the members to be served by the FICU. . . and in the case of competing proposals, “management must appropriately evaluate which. . .would be in their members’ best interests in terms of member philosophy and continued or expanded products and services.”

General character obviously is irrelevant so long as management discloses their personal gains and words of assurance—words which carry no accountability. NCUA has been aware at the highest levels of PenFed’s activity since the Ft. Belvoir merger in 2016. The Agency greenlights this avarice as long as the financial incentives promised management are divulged.

The words, character and fitness, mean nothing. NCUA’s actions are complicit and derelict in this perversion of “members’ best interests.”

Why This Is a Problem We All Share

The related and irreversible outcomes exemplified by PenFed’s mergers is that it is shutting down strong, well-run, long-serving, locally focused credit unions. These actions undermine member trust in the cooperative model. They erode confidence in the unique member-owned financial system.

As the CEO of Atlanta Postal Credit Union recently stated: “Likewise, although members of national postal organizations from other states were eligible to join APCU, doing business with a financial institution that was not in their home state probably did not come across as very practical.” Apparently Wisconsin postal workers don’t care about this practicality.

https://www.cutimes.com/2020/11/25/atlanta-postal-cu-launches-consumer-facing-credit-union-for-growth-opportunities/

PenFed’s goal for Post Office is not scooping up isolated $35 million credit unions in states where it has no presence or even legacy connection. Rather, it wants to demonstrate to a new market and another set of credit union leaders that these self-serving merger arrangements are an option for their future as well.

By putting small minnows on the hook, PenFed hopes to bring in much larger combinations. As documented above, PenFed’s organic growth has dwindled to almost nothing, 3.1%. But if this merger option is validated far and wide, along with its misleading claims about size, then as PT Barnum said, there is one born every minute.

Peeing in the Cooperative Swimming Pool

The temptations for apparent “easy growth” fueled by self-interested gains are not limited to PenFed. Other credit unions look for options to emulate this superficial outcome. Consultants line up to create “change of control” clauses in management contracts. Accelerated payments are structured upon the termination of benefit plans in mergers.

When one credit union repeatedly pollutes the water by peeing in the cooperative swimming pool, it will become unfit for all, not just where the offender swims. Ultimately the pool will be closed for good.

Orwellian Merger Logic Spreads

Not all mergers disdain member interests. But the reverse logic does not apply–that all mergers are good for members and the cooperative system.

Increasingly, merger explanations offer contrived reasoning void of fact. Others are outright sales manipulated for personal benefit. NCUA is partly responsible due to its routine endorsements. NCUA is validating flat out falsehoods and conflicts of interests. It has “legalized” the personal payoffs previously done behind closed doors.

Common sense suggests dubious combinations completed or announced have little to do with “members best interests.” Recent examples of these contrived explanations are the following:

  • Why would members of a successful $350 million community federal credit union in Maine have any interest in merging with a John Deere focused credit union headquartered in Moline, IL, more than 1,230 miles away? Moreover, the surviving state credit union would eliminate the one member one vote FCU governance model. It would be replaced by proxy voting in all situations and in which all votes are weighted by the amount of member shares. The Maine CEO’s assertion that this merger would “retain local control” when DECU’s board, not the members, make all the decisions is nonsensical. https://www.cutimes.com/2020/10/20/maine-credit-union-seeks-merger-with-an-illinois-based-cu-again/
  • Why should the members and employees of NorthStar Credit Union be forced to follow their CEO by merging with the credit union their CEO joined for a significant pay increase? Due to proxy voting, the members had no say in this transaction as the NorthStar board controlled the votes via proxies. https://www.cutimes.com/2020/08/18/seven-credit-unions-in-six-states-announce-new-mergers/
  • How do members, employees or the community benefit when two strong, long-serving independent billion-dollar credit unions merge in Minneapolis? Why should they give up the freedom of choice and the cooperative system lose the diversity and contributions of two independent leadership teams? https://www.cutimes.com/2020/05/05/billion-dollar-minnesota-credit-unions-plan-2021-merger/

Mergers become an addiction, not a strategy. The fix needs to keep happening or the whole enterprise starts to decline. Unable to innovate for organic growth, merging creates only greater size and a temporary illusion of success.

Mergers based on rhetorical flourishes are not plans, but chimeras. They turn the credit union model upside down. Instead of pursuing common benefit, personal ambition and gain become paramount.

As administered by regulators today, the merger process has become a blueprint for larceny. Better rules might provide an improved process. However, laws preventing wrongdoing do not prevent robbery.

Part III will outline a solution to this growing merger exploitation.

The Problem We All Share Part I: PenFed’s Spurious Merger Strategy

The traditional reasons for mergers of sound, well-run credit unions are the following: the credit union must get bigger quickly, to achieve scale necessary for greater efficiency, and to acquire more resources and internal capacity to improve member value.

On the surface the logic seems plausible. The challenge is that it is not self-fulfilling in practice.

Pentagon FCU (PenFed) has been the preeminent practitioner of this business approach. But a review of its results demonstrates how shallow and dubious the logic of a merger “growth strategy” can be.

PenFed’s Five-Year Merger Efforts

From September 2015 through the third quarter 2020, PenFed has implemented a very public, nation-wide effort and acquired 18 other credit unions via merger. The largest was the $420 million McGraw Hill FCU in May 2019. This followed the emergency January 2020 merger of the $320 million Progressive CU–with its open NY state charter–which enabled PenFed to serve anyone anywhere in the US.

The final stand-alone call reports from these 18 credit unions showed total assets of $2.4 billion. This total does not include the addition of the $265 million Sperry Associates FCU finalized in October, nor the proposed December merger of the $34 million Post Office CU in Madison, WI.

The Results of PenFed’s Merger Strategy-Faster Growth?

Since September 2015 the compound annual growth (CAGR) in Pen Fed’s total assets is 6.4%. Without the added mergers and $1.2 billion in additional borrowings, its organic growth rate is only 3.1%. In the five years prior with no mergers, PenFed’s annual internal growth was 5.3%.

The five-year peer growth rate for the 14 credit unions over $10 billion at September 2020 is 11.22%. None has a merger strategy similar to PenFed’s. PenFed’s 6.4% growth is only 57% of the peer’s pace and places them 13th or at the bottom of the peer table.

Five Year Annual Asset Growth for Credit Unions over $10 Billion in assets

( data: September 2015 & September 2020 assets)

Asset Rank State Name 2015 assets 2020 assets 5 Year CAGR
7 TX Security Service $9,052,442,285 $10,081,370,509 2.18%
3 VA Pentagon $19,223,138,716 $26,257,438,559 6.44%
2 NC State Employees’ $31,162,020,508 $45,851,733,095 8.03%
8 IL Alliant $8,463,784,328 $13,027,161,832 9.01%
13 MA Digital $6,519,513,295 $10,469,689,635 9.94%
6 CA Golden 1 $9,508,199,852 $15,567,120,747 10.36%
9 CA First Tech $8,335,581,297 $14,404,660,260 11.56%
12 FL Suncoast $6,627,125,361 $12,026,016,187 12.66%
1 VA Navy $71,967,667,797 $131,620,239,595 12.83%
4 WA BECU $13,878,323,252 $25,637,148,406 13.06%
11 TX Randolph-Brooks $6,665,438,060 $12,550,850,662 13.49%
10 UT America First $7,002,583,992 $13,795,623,334 14.52%
5 CA SchoolsFirst $11,438,769,717 $22,597,939,638 14.59%
14 UT Mountain America $4,823,680,120 $11,404,026,075 18.78%
PG Credit Unions Over $10B $15,333,447,756 $26,092,215,610 11.22%

If the comparison is expanded to all 49 credit unions over $5 billion, PenFed’s growth is still much slower than this peer group’s 10.8%.

But what if a new strategy takes time? The September 2020 annual numbers show an even greater fall off from the peers’ results compared to the five-year trends:

September 2020

Annual Growth PenFed Peers
Share growth 5.9% 21.9%
Loans 5.3% 7.6%
Assets 6.0% 17.4%
Capital 6.0% 13.0%
Members 13.2% 8.2%
Operating Expense 18.9% 12.6%

Greater Efficiency?

The second reason for a merger strategy is that growth brings greater efficiency. PenFed is already the third largest credit union in America. So it should be at a high level of efficiency already. However, when comparing different measures of operational efficiency before and after these eighteen acquisitions, the operating results show a dramatic decrease in efficiency even as Pentagon has increased assets over $7 billion.

PenFed Efficiency Trends as of Sept 2015 and 2020

Ratio September 2015 September 2020
Efficiency Ratio 62.6% 80.8%
Op Exp/Avg Assets 1.35% 2.33%
Assets/FTE $12.5 mn $9.9 mn
Avg Acct Relationship $23,734 k $19,094 k
Loan/Share 118.6% 108.5%
Net Worth 10.06% 10.7%
Delinquency 0.26% 1.07%

The ratios show a dramatic deterioration in efficiency and productivity. With the same balance sheet structure and net worth as five years earlier, PenFed has higher costs, members have smaller average relationships, and the expense ratio increased 73%. Delinquency is four times higher.

Greater Member Value?

PenFed’s product driven focus may provide competitive choices for members in specific circumstances. Their credit card and first mortgages can be excellent value in some markets. Building member relationships is not the focus of its strategy, however.

Several numbers illustrate this product versus member-centric focus. The share draft penetration, ( a primary financial institution indicator) is 14.1% versus the peers’ 67.4%. The average member relationship has declined from $23.7K to $19.1K over the five years. The number of share accounts per member at 1.41 trails the peer’s of 2.03.

Rather than building member relationships, the credit union’s approach is akin to commercial financial firms that move in and out of markets pursuing different product priorities as suggested by circumstances.

Investments to Enhance Competitive Capabilities?

A final rationale for mergers is that more assets provide more capacity to underwrite greater investments in technology, staff and other fixed assets to maintain or enhance competitive position. The single largest investment by PenFed was in 2016 when it purchased a new head office in McLean VA. (https://patch.com/virginia/mclean/penfed-purchases-new-corporate-hq-tysons-0

PenFed CEO James Schenck explained the reasons for the purchase, which has resulted in a 580% increase in building and fixed assets in just four years:

“In order to attract the best and brightest employees, a firm needs to not only pay a competitive salary with benefits, but needs to offer a best-in-class work environment with a meaningful mission.

“PenFed has an insatiable appetite for talented, educated professionals to provide perfect service to our members. Locating our corporate headquarters in Tysons will continue to enhance our operational efficiency and it will be conducive to sustaining growth of the intellectual capital required to keep pace with our members’ needs and deliver exceptional value and superior service.”

Before the merger strategy, PenFed reported total building and fixed assets investments of $91 million (4.8% of net worth). Five years later the $530.5 million total equals 19.4% of net worth. In this same period, the number of fulltime equivalent employees has increased just 73% from 1,539 to 2,662.

The average salary and benefits per employee of the current staff is $101,969, a 5.1% annual growth from the $79,616 five years earlier.

In addition to this growth in average salary, the credit union has increased its balance sheet assets funding employee benefit and deferred compensation plans with investments not authorized under Part 703 of NCUA Rules. This five-fold increase over five years, from $126 million to $732.2 million, includes $130.1 million in Charitable Donation Accounts.

The Strategic Mirage

PenFed’s “growth via mergers” has resulted in slowing rates of both internal and total asset growth, increased expenses, reduced average member relationships and a dramatic increase in fixed investments with uncertain return. Instead of an example of improved performance from growth, the results are at the bottom of its peer group.

PenFed’s floundering performance is being propped up by taking in as other operating income (negative good will) the equity from other strong, long-serving credit unions. As described in the analysis of the Sperry Associates FCU merger:

For over five years “$0 cost acquisitions” have been a critical contributor to PenFed’s bottom line and balance sheet size. In 2019, it booked a total equity increase of $92.4 from mergers. “Bargain gains from mergers” (negative good will) totaled $74.2 million and $18.2 million was added equity value. Of the credit union’s $151 million 2019 net income, over half is from transferring the accumulated surplus from other well-capitalized, merged credit unions which PenFed recognized as “other operating income.”

This 2019 one-time income boost came from three mergers. . . PenFed’s reported asset growth was only $300 million. But without these three mergers it would show a balance sheet decline of $500 million.

Credit unions’ advantage is their relationship with members. PenFed’s mergers help disguise the pitfalls of its open field of membership. For it has no market focus, no niche, and nowhere to effectively mine for organic growth. Its minimal performance outcomes are a veneer. They can be sustained only by finding more sound, established and well-capitalized credit unions willing to become further victims of this Ponzi-like business model.

And that raises the second, and more consequential issue. That is the irreversible shutdowns of strong, well-run, long-serving, locally focused credit unions built on generations of member loyalty.

I will address this challenge in Part II: Mergers’ Impact on the Cooperative System

One CEO’s Vision for the Coming Decade

“I hope that it will look like a “back-to-the-future” revolution. Back to the most basic of cooperative design principles, alive and well. Those concepts move front and center in the organizations driving our futures.

And they are actively promoted by regulators, examiners and auditors of our operation.

I would hope that organizations, both small and huge, will capture the attention of cooperative owners in a way that truly radiates a win-win with the consumer side. “Do no harm” will be our thinking. A respect for our community will drive our entrepreneurial spirit to leverage our financial power more broadly.

We will cast aside our centralized thinking about what is relevant and put upon so many today. Instead we embrace the spirit that every charter is relevant for the simple fact that they willed their CU and its future into the mix.

Bottom line: It will be an industry with a resurgence of purpose over the balance sheet score cards of today.”

The Municipal Credit Union Saga Stays Dark

In three prior commentaries I have described NCUA’s conservatorship of Municipal Credit Union.

Because of this credit union’s 104-year history and its vital role in the city, I contacted the credit union to update its recovery following the release of the September call report.

NCUA’s director of external affairs sent the following to my request:

November 30, 2020 at 10:49 AM

Hello, Chip. We received the inquiry that you sent to Municipal Credit Union requesting to speak to someone on the credit union’s progress. Please note that notwithstanding key personnel announcements, we do not comment on our efforts or conditions related to conserved credit unions.

Regards,
Joseph B. Adamoli
Office of External Affairs and Communications

My reply:

December 1, 2020

I understand your email responds to the inquiry I sent MCU to update their progress in conservatorship.

I am surprised your office would miss an opportunity to demonstrate NCUA’s leadership by ducking simple questions about running such a large and important $3.7 billion credit union serving New York and its 600, 000 members.

For example, the members and credit union system would be interested in:

        • Why has the Agency chosen four different chief executives in the last two years, Kyle Markland being the most recent? Who makes these decisions? What marching orders are they given?
        • Under agency control, why has the credit union reported such wildly fluctuating results, for example a loss of over $120 million in one quarter and an extraordinary ROA in the following two quarters? (https://chipfilson.com/2020/02/municipal-credit-union-nyc-reports-30-million-net-income-gain-in-4th-quarter/)
        • Why have the financial concerns of the 600,000 members not merited a statement about the forward conditions they will have to deal with or better yet, some announcement of confidence about the future?

The credit union’s quarterly call reports are public. Its financial performance is open for anyone to review and comment on. Are the numbers a good sign for members or not?

Given NCUA’s track record for conservatorships, does the turnover of executive leadership signal a lack of momentum for the institution, staff, and its financial plan?

Your policy seems positioned to give the NCUA a blackout period to simply keep the institution out of the members’ sightlines in hope the NCUA can package the credit union in a back-room handoff to a convenient suitor versus working to hand the credit union back to its community.

I urge you to manage this differently. Transparency creates trust. Silence undermines member and public confidence just when regulatory leadership is most needed.

Chip Filson

Why MCU’s Situation Matters

MCU’s September 30, 2020 call report numbers are in many respects very positive.

The credit union grew shares by 27% to $3.5 billion in the past year while adding 27,000 members to total 600,000. Its ROA is 1.18% and a net worth of 4.66%. Delinquency remains very stable with the allowance account funded over 200% of total delinquencies. Its balance sheet holds over $1.7 billion in investments including $800 million in cash.

Chartered in 1916, the cooperative has served five generations of New Yorkers through thick and thin. It is a vital part of the city and state’s credit union system.

Importantly, it is a highly visible example of the broader narrative of the cooperative role for members in times of crisis. Local response to circumstances is the hallmark of a credit union relationship.

NCUA Puts Itself In Charge

When NCUA manages a credit union via conservatorship, it has a heightened responsibility to all the member-owners. To keep the confidence of the credit union system, open communication is necessary.

All NCUA employees are public servants. They are paid entirely from credit union funds. Board members and their politically appointed advisors have a singular responsibility for the wise use of authority and industry resources.

This is especially true in difficult times. For if government is not effective when its role is primary, then the entire industry suffers.

Transparency Essential for Trust

Public dialogue is how trust is created in NCUA oversight. Kyle Markland’s appointment will be the MCU’s fourth chief executive in the past two years, all selected by regulators. In previous commentaries, I described the importance of this selection as follows:

The key success factor (in a conservatorship) is finding and supporting the right turnaround leader. The challenge is simple: Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.

Will NCUA appoint a jackass or a carpenter? Someone to play caretaker until the agency elects a merger partner to resolve a leadership transition? Certainly, there will be vultures a plenty looking to take the “problem” off NCUA’s hands.

The financial numbers reported in conservatorship have fluctuated widely. A loss in one quarter of over $120 million to an extraordinary ROA two quarters later. Members have been kept in the dark about the credit union’s plans.

Decisions with long term consequences are being done in a vacuum. It is not clear who is calling the shots and who is willing to take responsibility.

Where is the Problem?

The Agency’s professional competence is on the line in its takeover of MCU. Many ask how this situation could have occurred if NCUA and state regulators had conducted adequate oversight to begin with.

Is the real problem the credit union or a multi-year failure of examination and supervision?

NCUA’s record in large conservatorships is not encouraging. In the takeover and liquidation of five corporate credit unions in 2010, the Agency’s forecasted costs to credit unions were in error by over $20 billion. In these forced liquidations there is a $6 billion surplus even after NCUA spent almost $4 billion additional expenses overseeing the closures.

Moreover, without timely information, it is hard for the credit union system, vendor partners and employer sponsors to provide support to MCU.

The Need for Leadership

Who at NCUA is willing to take responsibility for informing the credit union community about this critically important situation? It is a time for leadership. One leader stepping up could inspire others to contribute to MCU’s return to its member-owners.

More Voting Results Announced by Credit Unions

The recent national elections demonstrated the essence of democracy is voting. Credit unions as co-ops are unique in their governance. All federal credit unions and most states establish member authority as “one person one vote.” The amount of one’s shares or size of loans  does not change this basic equality. Rather, that is how private corporate and public companies are governed.

No proxies are allowed for FCUs although seven states permit limited proxy voting for their charters. In one state (IL), proxy voting is permitted in all cases including merger. In states permitting proxies, members give their voting power to the board, unless specifically revoked prior to the vote.

Member voting primarily in the annual election of directors is the most frequent means cooperative governance is practiced. But it is especially critical when a board recommends the merging of a sound, long standing credit union into another institution.

A Multi-tiered Democratic Nation

Cooperative democracy is a micro example of the broader political society in which we live. One co-op commentator described this context as follows:

“Democracy is seen by the public as making decisions regarding laws, taxes and public spending. These tools are necessary, but alone are limited in their ability to improve society. We need to expand our tool-kit and harness our collective imagination and intelligence to utilize not just the mechanisms of democratic governments, but also in cooperatives.”

(https://coop.exchange/blog/5afea409-45ea-11ea-8997-06ceb0bf34bd/democracy-beyond-the-state-elections-in-trade-and-credit-unions-building-societies-and-co-ops-need-r)

Co-op democracy only works if members believe their role matters and they are encouraged to exercise their voice. This is not the process being followed in most mergers. If 90% or more voters failed to participate in any political election, many would consider it a façade. “My vote won’t matter so why bother.” Unfortunately this is the pattern in almost all credit union mergers. Two recent examples:

From Ypsilanti, MI : The CEO of Washtenaw announced that 457 or 8.0% of eligible members voted in an election to decide the future of the credit union’s potential merger with the $566 million Financial CU. The $50 million dollar credit union, chartered in 1949 reported 16% share growth, well-capitalized net worth of 7.54% and no delinquencies at September 30. 6.7% of the members voted yes, and 1.3% voted no. Over 92% of the member-owners did not vote to decide the credit union’s future.

The CEO explained the merger with CP Financial CU: “We are extremely proud of the lasting legacy that the good people and good work Washtenaw Federal Credit Union has provided the community for the past 70+ years. That BEST of who we are will still live and breathe at True Community Credit Union (new name); moreover, the sum of CPFCU and WFCU is greater than we were individually. Our credit union family is not dissolving, it is simply growing larger. CP FCU has welcomed us with open arms not solely because they are good people, but because “real recognizes real” and our members aren’t losing a credit union but gaining another one.”

From Garden City Park, NY: 1,843 members of the $265 million Sperry Associates FCU voted on the Board’s recommendation to merge with the $26 billion PenFed, located in Mclean, VA. 68.3% (1,166) of those voted in favor; 35.7% (677) voted no. Of the total membership of 16,303, only 11.4% of the share-owners participated in the merger decision which will end this charter issued in 1936.

The CEO’s justification for merger: “For over a decade, Sperry’s board and executive management team has worked to successfully strengthen the credit union’s standing, and this is the next step in that process.”

Co-op democracy or something else?

In both instances above, over 92% of members did not vote or voted against the merger of these two sound, long-serving credit unions with strong local presence. What does this lack of participation suggest about member interest in the surviving credit union? If they did not value their own institution’s service and record enough to participate, will they have any allegiance to their new one?

Is the so-called democratic process of member voting just an administrative fig leaf covering the naked ambitions and personal agendas of those in charge? What is the meaning of a “vote” when over 90% of eligible members do not participate?

If a credit union is sold to a bank or converts to private cooperative insurance, by rule a minimum of 20% of members must vote for the decision to be approved. There is no participation requirement, however, to end the life of a charter. If a minimal level of member awareness is required in these two situations, is it even more appropriate for the decision to end the life of a charter? Does the fact no required participation is needed, lead to a controlled process to ensure alternative points of view are not raised?

A Special Relationship?

As these consolidations routinely proceed with less than 10% member participation, is this just quickening the pace ending the distinctive credit union cooperative advantage? For if members are treated just like customers being told what is good for them, how is that any different from banks? The CEO’s rhetorical statements justifying their merger decisions contain no facts, no specific member benefits. Only the increase in financial gain by the CEO and senior staff is provided, and that only because it is required by regulation. Surely member owners deserve a fuller explanation than marketing mantras before giving away their institution.

Democracy is not a rule, set of bylaws, or even an idea. Rather it is a discipline requiring personal actions. That involvement was the essential good will that got almost all credit unions started as there was no start up capital. . Today the phrase member relationship is used to define this critical difference in cooperative design. It is a skill and capability that needs continuous effort to sustain this advantage not just once a year at the annual meeting.

Disposable Members: An NCUA Practice That Must Change

My earlier blog today about Fellowship Credit Union (now BECU) contains an even more powerful message than acorns becoming tall oaks.

It is the example of people willing to put limited resources to the aid of their fellow human beings in difficult circumstances. That is, the many giving others the opportunity at a better life—during the hard times of the depression.

Another Reality: Disposable Members

Last year when walking in downtown Chicago, the following message on the side of a public trash unit caught my eye.

This is unfortunately one of the consequences of NCUA’s current practice in problem credit union resolution. Members with savings receive all their money back at full value. Borrowing members are sold off to the highest bidder. For savers this would be the same as NCUA transferring members’ insured balances to Wells Fargo or a finance company. Sell savings accounts for the best price and then let members work out their future relationship on their own.

Borrowers are the primary reason for a credit union. They provide the most important source of revenue. But in problem situations, the borrowing members’ fate is not NCUA’s concern. Loans are only an asset to be rid of.

This practice was most dramatically illustrated in the NCUA’s February sale of over 4,500 member taxi medallion loans to a hedge fund seeking to build a dominant share of the NYC taxi medallion market.

How This Topic Came Up Last Week

At NCUA’s Wednesday 2021/22 budget hearing, this issue was raised when one of the presenters gratuitously congratulated his organization and the Agency on this action, according to the CU Times.

The reported statements were:

“As NAFCU’s SIF Committee pointed out prior to the sale the unusually large taxi medallion portfolio would strain agency resources and pose a risk to the credit union community so long as it remained under management by the Asset Management and Assistance Center.

“While NAFCU did not anticipate a global pandemic at the time we offered this advice, we believed that retaining the portfolio in the hopes of extracting a higher sales price presented unnecessary risks, and recommended that the agency divest the portfolio at the earliest opportunity so long as it received a fair price.”

No facts were offered to support this position. The idea that the portfolio would “strain agency resources” in a $19 billion dollar fund is nonsensical. The agency two years earlier had expensed all the estimated loss–at a magnitude 4 times ($750 million) the last reported deficits ($150 million) in conservatorship.

The return on this additional cash in the NCUSIF is under 10 basis points.

Why this superfluous statement was made in a budget hearing is unclear–a crude attempt at sucking up to the Agency or poking a sharp stick in the eye of a group that challenged the sale. Whatever the reason, it not only undercuts the credibility of the presenter, but more critically it supports the unfortunate Agency practice that member borrowers are not NCUA’s responsibility, just savers.

Hiding the Truth on the Taxi Medallions

NCUA has repeatedly refused to present any details that would support its sale as in the best interests of the members. Or even the best financial outcome for the NCUSIF.

At least three organizations requested FOIA information on the sale; all denied. Some of the sale details were already published in a Feb. 20, 2020 WSJ story on the hedge fund’s purchase.

The Journal reported the price of $350 million for a portfolio of 3,000 New York medallions, 900 Chicago medallions, 500 Philadelphia medallions and 100 from other cities.

This is an average loan value of $77,800 each, all secured by medallions. An estimate of the average book value of these loans is the purchase price of $350 million plus the loss NCUA says it has taken on the portfolio of $760 million. These numbers combined total $11 billion and suggest an average book value of $245 thousand per loan. The cash received would be a payment of 31 cents per loan dollar.

What’s Wrong with Cashing Out?

The challenges of the New York taxi medallion market continue to be tracked. One example is the 2015-2020 chart below which shows the rider volumes as the uber/lyft new entrants disrupted the taxi industry. So, wasn’t 31 cents better than holding on? That is the question which NCUA and the presenter have failed to offer any factual information.

For some the chart may be a sufficient justification forgetting the fundamental rule of markets, what goes up must come down and vice versa. Cashing out at the bottom is generally the highest cost strategy—just remember the five corporate liquidations, all supposedly insolvent, whose estates have generated a surplus of over $6 billion so far.

Better options for members are what the Taxi association, CUNA and others offered to present to NCUA which refused to consider all offers. Medallion drivers, one of the most diverse group of credit union members, include many individual entrepreneurs. They were denied any ability to negotiate their own future. The sweat equity that they hoped to build was turned over to a firm that specialize in profiting from others in financial difficulty.

One Easy Solution for a Win-Win

Instead of turning its back on members striving to realize the American dream through their own labor, what if the agency had offered to discount the members’ loans to the same level that the hedge fund bought them? Furthermore, these rewrites could include a contingency that if the borrower was able to sell the medallion for more in the future, the gain could be split between the borrower and the fund.

More proposals for assistance continue to be drawn up today by the alliance and New York city leaders. Some taxi owners were able to receive help from financial programs in the CARES act. But NCUA washed its hands and walked away from the members in trouble as others attempted to find solutions.

NCUA’s lack of transparency suggests there is much to hide in its failed supervision of the taxi medallion situation and sale. The agency used money due credit unions from the TCCUSF surplus to expense $750 million to cover up their inability to carry out basic responsibilities for problem supervision and resolution.

The most unfortunate aspect of the taxi medallion sale was that it proved again that NCUA views credit union borrowers as disposable. This is exactly the opposite of the founding spirit of the Fellowship CU and the purpose for which all credit unions were formed.

December 7th is also a day that no one will forget because it brought America into WWII. A basic code of honor in the US military is that no one gets left behind whether as POWs or MIAs. Decades, even generations later, the US government sends teams to recover the remains of missing from Korea to Vietnam and other places of combat. No one is forgotten, whatever the circumstances.

That is the heart of the American democratic commitment to each other. It’s the motivation for Fellowship Credit Union, begun this day four generations ago.

Isn’t it time NCUA followed this same principle when performing its responsibilities?

All Credit Unions Start “Small”: The Winner, the Message, the Challenge

Question from the November 16th blog: Can you identify the credit union whose initial name is shown in the image below?

Answer: Boeing Employees CU chartered December 7, 1935.

The “cooperative historical scholar” with the answer was Kathy Tichenor, CLO, Pasadena FCU.

Kathy has been in the credit union movement for over 40 years. Working on her credit union’s founding anniversary she was curious who else had also been around for 85 years or more. She discovered BECU in that research.

She describes herself as “a true believer of why we are here and who we serve” and reminds staff continuously about our roots and how far we have come.

Her message is “we are here for the financial health of our members especially when help is needed during financial distress, sickness and hard times. If I am not assisting a member, I am assisting someone who is.”

BECU’s Founding

Here is the brief beginning from the credit union’s web site:

In 1935, new employees for The Boeing Company were required to purchase their own tools before they could start work. This was the height of the Great Depression. Finding money to buy tools was an insurmountable burden for many prospective employees. A Boeing employee, William Dodge, read an article in Readers Digest about the difference that credit unions were making across the world. Inspired, Dodge got a group of Boeing employees to talk about starting their own credit union. The first loan was for $2.50 to buy tools. https://www.becu.org/members-matter/about-membership/becu-history

BECU Today

With the deposit of 50 cents from each founding member, today the credit union is $25.7 billion in assets. It serves 1.3 million members and employs over 2,405.

The founders’ vision was to help fellow workers during the depression buy the tools necessary for a job at the Boeing Aircraft Company. Their plan was cooperative self-help, a vision that is still the foundation for this billion-dollar cooperative.

Every credit union rests on this same foundation. All start small relying on sweat equity and the communal impulse to aid one another. A few will grow large, most will not. But all demonstrate the power of a vision that inspires and creates legacies benefitting future generations.

From thousands of small seeds, tall trees may grow.

Today’s challenge: are these seeds still being planted? See following blog for why this founding spirit still  provides a vital example  for today.